The Goddess's Reward

Unfortunately, Lorry's period of ease didn't last long.

Hugh, who was making a ruckus, suddenly returned. Upon entering and noticing Miles's Corpse, he yelled, drawing Fors out of the room.

After Lorry briefly explained what Miles had been going through, Hugh began to vividly recount what she had seen and heard in the East Borough.

Gale-force winds, thunderstorms... It seems Miss Justice's notification was timely enough; with the Church of Storms present, the God of Steam and Machinery must be as well...

Such a spectacular commotion meant at least their Demigod had been mobilized... the matter must have been resolved... thinking this, he quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

Of course, regarding this point.

Hugh's subsequent account of seeing the Three Great Churches and the Military temporarily taking over the Factory District upon his return confirms that the matter has been resolved.

But resolving the issue doesn't mean everyone can finally relax.

Whether it's the Royal Family, the Three Great Churches, the Military, Factory owners, injured or lucky workers, the families of the dead and Informant, or even Lorry, the seemingly insignificant MI9, everyone will be quite busy in the coming days, and perhaps for a long time to come.

That evening.

After regaining some strength, Lorry hired a carriage under the pretense of a drunk friend and took Miles's Corpse to the West Borough to see his superiors.

Infiltrating the Fantasy Society gather intelligence and killing the opposing Archbishop... these two achievements earned him a total of 6,000 Pound in Merit.

With the 2,000 Pound I had previously accumulated, I was not far from having a "Self".

The Lieutenant Colonel promised that if the other party handed over Sealed Artifact or Beyonder Characteristic worth 5,000 pounds, the "Self" would become his complete property.

Lorry did a quick calculation:

I acquired this Sealed Artifact myself, at a cost of approximately thirteen thousand pounds.

What does this number mean?

Mrs. Mary Gale, the major shareholder of Coim Company who repeatedly hired the "Fool" Klein, had a net worth of only tens of thousands of pounds.

It's probably only two to three times that number.

Even so, she remained at ease in the Kingdom's high society, enjoying popularity among nobles and wealthy merchants, and was the object of many men's active pursuit.

If it weren't for the fact that "Self" was such a perfect fit, capable of simultaneously suppressing the negative effects of the three Sealed Artifact— "Shadow Ring," "Thousand Illusions," and "Calm Mask" —Lorry would have seriously considered giving it up and exchanging it for something else, or even directly obtaining a large sum of money from MI9.

On the way back to Hillston District in Hired Carriage, Lorry finished settling the score and smiled bitterly, feeling the cruelty of fate upon him.

How should I put it?

This amount of money came at exactly the limit of his capabilities.

This does not include the unpaid royalties for the Volume Two "Great Detective Sherlock".

Lorry's entire net worth is just over six thousand pounds. After deducting the guaranteed £1,024 from his "Lucky Money Bag," that's about the amount of Pound he can actually contribute.

Of course, he also has a Sealed Artifact that he hasn't obtained yet, which, if the negative effects aren't too severe, could probably be worth 2,000 pounds.

Before long, the Hired Carriage arrived at Iris Street.

As expected, the landlord did not disappoint Miles, leaving a letter reminding them to pay the rent in the mailbox in front of each of their houses.

The general content is:

He will allow the two to pay rent a maximum of three days late, otherwise he will appeal to the Court and demand compensation according to the original contract.

At the same time, they need to pay interest when paying rent, the specific amount of which is calculated according to the exchange rate of Backlund Bank on that day.

Lorry glanced at the address, immediately went inside, found an envelope, stuffed in the last quarter's rent for both houses, and dropped it into the mailbox at the intersection.

He also paid extra to have the landlord send someone to repair the windows.

After doing all this, a starving Lorry went to his usual spot and bought some freshly baked Desi Pie. On his way back, he also bought plenty of Sweet Iced Tea and spirits. He sat on Easy Chair on the Terrace, enjoying his dinner while staring into the dark, moonless night.

After finishing his last meal here, he held a Sweet Iced Tea in his left hand and a tall glass of strong liquor in his right, and began to sip it slowly.

Lorry didn't know exactly how much he had drunk, but the cost of using "Sure-Hit Revolver" had been completely covered.

He slept directly on the Terrace that night.

In his dream, Lorry saw Miles again, sporting dark circles under his eyes. He couldn't hear what Miles said, but in the end, Miles gave him a thumbs up with satisfaction.

Just then, a figure emerged from the mist and gently patted Miles on the shoulder. Miles waved goodbye and walked side by side with the person into the mist.

Lorry vaguely felt that the figure looked somewhat familiar.

The way the other person walked resembled Old Perry from Koyar Village.

When Lorry woke up, it was already noon the next day.

His head throbbed with a dull ache, seemingly a result of yesterday's Spirituality exhaustion and hangover, but it no longer affected his ability to use Sealed Artifact.

With "Thousand Illusions" and "Self" on his hands, Fitz Posner, the Former Ceramics Factory and now Face Mask Factory, locked the gate and walked to the roadside.

He flagged down Hired Carriage and told them where he wanted to go.

The coachman exclaimed "Yes!" and cracked his whip.

The carriage moved slowly.

With a whoosh, Lorry pulled back the curtains, glanced one last time at house number 64, then looked ahead and pulled the curtains back shut with another whoosh.

He knew he probably wouldn't come back here.

Three hours later, Lorry finally completed the necessary investigation procedures under Fitz Posner's name and returned to his office.

During the investigation, he learned some things.

Because the Face Mask Factory was far from the site of the massive Explosion and located on the periphery, it was small in scale and not highly valued by Believer of the Evil God.

Therefore, the losses were relatively small.

The production equipment was completely undamaged, no one was injured, only four people died, one of whom was identified by the Female Workers as a Believer of Evil God god.

It is said that he was bitten to death by a dog.

At this point, the blonde girl disguised as Police chuckled and joked that it was a pity the big black dog had run away in the chaos, otherwise she would have discussed with Lorry about buying it. She had never seen such a powerful dog in all her years of life.

"That bastard is pretty clever; he knows how to evade the Beyonder ' checks."

"Old Gentleman, do you have a way to find it?" Lorry, now in his true form, lay back in his office chair and looked at the White Bone Ring on his desk.

However, he discovered that the other party had just manifested facial features when it vanished in a flash.

Lorry was taken aback and subconsciously looked towards the door.

He saw a woman standing there, dressed in a simple robe. Her features were very ordinary, but her unique demeanor made people feel at peace.